FCW Insider: Dec 23

Biden promises 'overwhelming focus' on hack recovery

The president-elect called out the Trump administration for failing to prioritize cybersecurity in general, and for "downplaying the seriousness" of the ongoing breach that has hit multiple federal agencies.

Union lawsuit looks to block Schedule F

The government has until January 15 to respond to the National Treasury Employees Union's lawsuit seeking the blockage of the new employee classification.

FITARA grades mostly stable

Most agencies maintained their grades on the latest FITARA scorecard, but the new telecom category produced some failing marks.

Comment: IoT cyber law signed amid growing vulnerabilities

The passage of the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 means that NIST will start to address the gap in post-market guidance to help organizations adequately address newly discovered vulnerabilities in devices already on their networks.

Quick Hits

*** The National Archives and Records Administration has not detailed employees to the White House to take part in records preservation and management during the transition as is the usual practice, according to a Dec. 21 letter from Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to Archivist David S. Ferriero. In the letter, Maloney says she's concerned that "the outgoing Trump Administration may not be adequately preserving records and may be disposing of them without first obtaining your views, as required by law."

*** The IRS awarded a sole-source $6 million bridge contract to Accenture Federal Services to support the complex, legacy tax filing system CADE2. Accenture is the incumbent on a contract that is being re-bid, with an award scheduled for March 21, 2021. The bridge order is designed to avoid a "lapse in…critical services" during tax filing season, according to contracting documents.

*** The $900 billion COVID-19 relief and stimulus bill that passed Congress on Monday night includes almost $2 billion to subsidize the planned "rip-and-replace" of Huawei and ZTE gear in U.S. telecommunications systems ordered by the Federal Communications Commission. Huawei and ZTE are the leading Chinese telecom firms labeled as security risks by lawmakers.

*** FCW Insider is taking a break from publishing for the Christmas and New Year's holidays. We'll be back Jan. 4, 2021 with the next edition, and we'll send out news alerts if there's breaking news on the federal IT beat over the holidays.